Shortage of train crews on Great Western Railway - ongoing discussion

[whole diary]

[SandTEngineer]

Apologies to the moderators.  I realise this thread is about GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) train crew shortages but I thought it was relevant as it added to the dreadful service confusion down in the far South West yesterday evening.....

[a-driver]

Yes, so was I, but my understanding of the Devon Bank rules is that if one power car is out the banks must not be attempted from a station stop at Totnes.  However, speaking to the station supervisor at Totnes whilst waiting for the next service, he told me that rule has been superseded if the HST^▸ (High Speed Train) only has 7 coaches on.  Is that correct?

Yes, trains on one engine and formed of 8 trailers must not stop at Totnes or be routed through the platform.  
I think the only time they’d consider not stopping with 7 trailers is during the Autumn.

[JayMac]

Staffing levels aren’t the issue. Staffing at most depots, especially the HSS^▸ (High Speed Services) ones, are at their highest they’ve ever been.

Then why were the majority of yesterday's (and last Sunday's, and the previous Sunday's... ad infinitum) attributed by GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) to a lack of staff?

Yes, a few of us in the know are aware that training on new/cascaded stock is impacting rosters with rest day working on other days of the week impacting on Sunday working. Yes, a few of us are aware that because of new/cascaded stock there are maintenance issues. Key maintenance personnel having gone from GWR to Hitachi. Yes, a few of us know that Network Rail are behind the curve with electrification. And, yes, a few of us know that stock is moving away from GWR at a rapid pace, putting pressure on what's left. You and I know this, but I'd wager the vast majority of those wanting to use the advertised service on a Sunday are not aware of all these issues. That's not acceptable. There needs to be an explanation and apology from the top of GWR. It is not good enough to leave social media and front line staff in the firing line every Sunday.

GWR share equal blame for the ongoing fiasco. They are the public face of the railways so they have to take their share of the blame for not managing the situation. It is disingenuous of them to abrogate responsibility for the issues to the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) and Network Rail. As a TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) you can't just sit there quietly twiddling your thumbs, taking in the subsidies and trousering the profit, whilst every one day in seven there is a service meltdown. Mark Hopwood must break from cover and apologise, explain why, then explain how he plans to resolve.

GWR keep accepting the franchise extensions. What it seems they are not accepting though is any responsibility to the people who provide their income. The fare payers and taxpayers.

[didcotdean]

And in the mean time, the marketing part of GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) keeps churning platitudes out, seemingly oblivious to everything else. The latest slogan today being 'Arrive ready for business with Great Western Railway, where travel time needn’t be wasted time.'

They would be better off taking the KFC approach after their problems. Admit things aren't right, say what you are working on, then when things are back to being right (let's take it for now that at some time they will be) then do the aspirational stuff.

[SandTEngineer]

...yes, and being honest by reducing the train service level to that which CAN be resourced and run reliably in the interim...

[a-driver]

...yes, and being honest by reducing the train service level to that which CAN be resourced and run reliably in the interim...

But as staff availability will vary from week to week depending on the weather and local and national events, engineering works.  If you reduce the train service to that which you can reliably resource then you are looking at a much reduced service than is currently being run. Extensive engineering works aren’t helping because they require more crew because trips would exceed maximum driving hours or go over diversionary routes that some depots don’t sign.  As engineering works vary week to week so do the diagrams so the requirement for train crew also varies.... and some of the diagrams are nasty, another reason why some drivers may not volunteer to work.
Throwing money at a problem doesn’t always fix it.  For example, a lot of the London crews don’t live in London so they rely on train services, not necessarily GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) services, to get them into work.  That’s not possible on a Sunday morning so they don’t make themselves available to work. 

Any changes to train crew contracts on GWR are handled by the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) as the franchise is up for renewal in a couple of years time so GWR can’t yet include Sunday’s in the working week so Hopwood’s hands are a little tied.

I can’t honestly see why they don’t explain things fully to customers.  The fact is, it wouldn’t damage the business to be honest, which is why I always think there’s something or someone preventing them from doing so.

[grahame]

And in the mean time, the marketing part of GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) keeps churning platitudes out, seemingly oblivious to everything else. The latest slogan today being 'Arrive ready for business with Great Western Railway, where travel time needn’t be wasted time.'

Controlled carefully, you can do that.

Through a series of business meetings at the end of last week (and more at the end of this week), I'm travelling by train and my travel time is not being wasted; hard at work except when the spectacular scenery distracts.  However, I'm always ahead of myself / with a fallback if there are problems, and I'm always arriving well in advance for any appointments along the way, and never on the last available train on the day.  Early arrival time is not wasted either ... I can find somewhere to sit and work.

Contrast that to the alternatives of driving myself, or going on a bus where I personally feel so thrown around that I can't work ...

[TaplowGreen]

And in the mean time, the marketing part of GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) keeps churning platitudes out, seemingly oblivious to everything else. The latest slogan today being 'Arrive ready for business with Great Western Railway, where travel time needn’t be wasted time.'

Controlled carefully, you can do that.

Through a series of business meetings at the end of last week (and more at the end of this week), I'm travelling by train and my travel time is not being wasted; hard at work except when the spectacular scenery distracts.  However, I'm always ahead of myself / with a fallback if there are problems, and I'm always arriving well in advance for any appointments along the way, and never on the last available train on the day.  Early arrival time is not wasted either ... I can find somewhere to sit and work.

Contrast that to the alternatives of driving myself, or going on a bus where I personally feel so thrown around that I can't work ...

You cando that, if the train is reliable and on time, of the advertised size rather than only 50% and packed to the gunwhales, has a good and consistent wifi connection, and is blessed with a driver...…….at the moment GWR struggle with those variables both individually and in combination, and I certainly wouldn't rely on them to get me anywhere of critical importance at a designated time.


Arriving well in advance "defensive scheduling" I think you call it - acknowledges that there is a problem, and for most people building in huge margins of error and trying to find somewhere to sit around is not effective or secure working time.


Sometimes it seems that GWR just devise these advertising campaigns to highlight their ineptness.


(Graham I know you're one of the faithful, please don't take offence!) 

[Adelante_CCT]

How would you defensively schedule if you had an appointment in Cheltenham at 15:00 on a Sunday, aim to arrive at 18:00 on the Saturday?

[grahame]

Arriving well in advance "defensive scheduling" I think you call it - acknowledges that there is a problem, and for most people building in huge margins of error and trying to find somewhere to sit around is not effective or secure working time.

I agree. 

I happen to be sitting semi-working / sorting out today's stuff and on the forum in the Alexander Bain,as recommended by mine host at the B&B I'm spending the night it.  I find it's very productive to work in the sort of environment.   And we have other members who have or do express an ability to work on the road as good as or better than at base.   "How CAN you work with all this lovely scenery going by" said someone to me today ...

It is the minority that will work in this defensive way - but not as tiny a minority as you might think.

Cheers - over a pint of Durdle Door that's come a bloomin' long way to find me.

(Graham I know you're one of the faithful, please don't take offence!) 

Nah - I don't take offence. Rather, I cry in frustration to what's being done to so many "normal" people who just want a train journey where they can travel at the time published and get a seat if they're going a significant distance.

[grahame]

How would you defensively schedule if you had an appointment in Cheltenham at 15:00 on a Sunday, aim to arrive at 18:00 on the Saturday?

Arrive in Cheltenham for a Sunday lunch.  If megaproblems via Kemble, go via Parkway.   All this assuming a London start.   If Pilning start then, yes, travel on Saturday.

[trainbuff]

Yesterdays problems weren't helped by the failure of 1V50 XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) HST^▸ (High Speed Train) 0900 Leeds to Plymouth that failed attempting to climb Rattery Bank west of Totnes, with one power car dead and 7 on.  I know this because I was sat on it at the time.  It took over an hour for the train to set back to Totnes and terminate in the Up Platform after a bit of shunting.  I must say, as a semi-retired railwayman with a little bit of "insider knowledge", that the customer service was extremely abysmal, with wrong information being given out on the PA^▸ (Public Address) by the Train Manager.  There were lots of confused passengers in the coach I was in so in the end I decided to stand up and tell them exactly what was going to happen in straightforward English, not in 'railway speak'.  When I have typed up my story I'll add it here.  Before anybody says it, I will acknowledge that such failures can be quite stressful for train staff, but they are trained to be professional in such circumstances are they not?...….

EDIT TO ADD^▸ (Automatic Dropping Device):… and just to add to everything, half way through the set back process the PASSCOM decided it had enough and started "DING-DONG - Will a member of train staff please go to zone A DING-DONG"  pause for 5 seconds then "DING-DONG - Will a member of train staff please go to zone A DING-DONG" pause for 5 seconds then....you guessed it.  It went on for 10 minutes until the Train Manager came on the PA when he could and said he had switched the PASSCOM off.  I didn't think that was very safe action on a stranded train!

The message you heard is not the PASSCOM being activated. It is either the Disabled Toilet Alarm or one of the emergency alarms in the disabled area being activated. It cannot be stopped until the Train Manager gets to the site. Had it been a PASSCOM the train would not have moved as all air would have been evacuated from the braking system leaving the brakes on

[TaplowGreen]

…...hope you've all been working on your defensive scheduling? 

All cancelled, or "updated" to a similar extent.

08:27 London Paddington to Cheltenham Spa due 10:43
10:00 London Paddington to Weston-Super-Mare due 12:33
10:30 London Paddington to Bristol Parkway due 12:25
11:18 Cheltenham Spa to London Paddington due 13:30
12:27 London Paddington to Cheltenham Spa due 14:46
12:45 Bristol Parkway to London Paddington due 14:43
13:45 Bristol Parkway to London Paddington due 15:40
14:00 London Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads due 15:56
15:30 London Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads due 17:28
15:33 Cheltenham Spa to London Paddington due 17:45
16:00 London Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads due 17:58
16:27 London Paddington to Bristol Parkway due 18:25
16:30 Bristol Temple Meads to London Paddington due 18:24
17:00 London Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads due 18:56
17:33 Cheltenham Spa to London Paddington due 19:45
18:45 Bristol Parkway to London Paddington due 20:38
18:56 Taunton to London Paddington due 21:53
19:00 Bristol Temple Meads to London Paddington due 20:51
19:30 London Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads due 21:28
19:30 Bristol Temple Meads to London Paddington due 21:25
19:45 Bristol Parkway to London Paddington due 21:37
20:45 Bristol Parkway to London Paddington due 22:40
21:30 London Paddington to Bristol Parkway due 23:25
21:46 Brighton to Portsmouth Harbour due 23:07
13:20 Weston-Super-Mare to London Paddington due 15:54
16:13 Penzance to London Paddington due 21:35
17:35 Penzance to London Paddington due 23:38
17:35 Bristol Temple Meads to Brighton due 21:10
17:57 London Paddington to Penzance due 23:35
18:45 Plymouth to London Paddington due 22:37
20:26 Weston-Super-Mare to London Paddington due 23:03

[Adelante_CCT]

I like this one....

11:18 Cheltenham Spa to London Paddington due 13:30 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.
Additional Information
----snip----
Customers travelling from Cheltenham Spa or Gloucester to Swindon, Reading and London Paddington should travel via Bristol Parkway.

Journey times will be extended by up to 60 minutes.

Ok, so the next train to arrive Bristol Parkway first from Cheltenham is the 12:10 which arrives Bristol Parkway at 12:39, not bad as the next service to Paddington is at 12:45 so that shouldn't delay me too much  .......... Oh...

12:45 Bristol Parkway to London Paddington due 14:43 will be cancelled.

Oh well, I'll just wait an hour for the next service from Bristol Parkway instead......

13:45 Bristol Parkway to London Paddington due 15:40 will be cancelled.

[TaplowGreen]

…….here we go again...……..


Cancellations to services between London Paddington and Swindon


Due to a shortage of train crew between London Paddington and Swindon:

Train services running to and from these stations may be cancelled or revised. Disruption is expected until the end of the day.
Customer Advice
Owing to a shortage of train crew there will be reduction in the frequency of train services between London Paddington and Bristol Temple Meads / London Paddington and Bristol Parkway / London Paddington and Cheltenham Spa in both directions. This is likely to be the case for the remainder of the day.

Intending customers are advised to use the 'JourneyCheck' section of the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) website for the latest updates on cancelled, altered and reinstated train services during the day.